L'émoi des Mots: Yves Jamait

He is one of the great songwriters of French chanson today. His poetry is vivid and raw. Without superfluity or detours, he sings of life, the doubts and indignities it arouses, the tragedies and joys it offers. With his guitar and lyrics at the ready, the artist likes to sing about loneliness, bars, working-class culture, drunken nights, love, and melancholy, which is said to “transform the vicissitudes of life into a hymn for the humble”.